Romain Grosjean ended the second day of testing at Jerez as comfortably the fastest man on track as the team continued its evaluation programme with the E21.
Under blue skies with occasional cloud coverage, Romain completed 95 laps; many of which dipped into the 1min 18s. He ended the day with the best time set thus far this weeka 1min 18.218secswith no other car running under 1min 19.000secs.
Fast Facts:Track: Jerez, Spain, 4.4km Chassis: E21-01Weather: Sunny, ambient 5-22C, track 7-28CProgramme: Systems checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package, tyre performance assessment. Laps Completed: 95. Classification: P1, 1:18.218.Interruptions: Stopped out on track on lap 96 (fuel).
Whats Next?
Kimi Raikknen will take to the wheel of the E21 for the first time tomorrow, before wrapping up the opening test on Friday.
Romain Grosjean: It was good today; the programme went to plan and we showed we have good reliability. For me, the whole test has gone well which bodes well for the year ahead. My feeling in the car is good and it was great to be at the top of the times. Even if it doesnt mean anything during testing, its still good to be at the front. We used the soft, medium and hard compounds and whilst were not 100% yet on the differences between each we have a good idea. Kimi will be working on this area for the next two days so well have a better understanding when we head to Barcelona. Its not easy to understand everything about the car and tyres yet, but I think were working quite well and its up to us to find the best solutions.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: Im very happy with todays performance. The pace looks good and we havent had any issues with reliability meaning we could complete all of our programme without interruption. We focused on learning more about the 2013 Pirelli tyres and ran with the soft, medium and hard compounds with a variety of different set-ups, both mechanical and aerodynamic, to understand how they react. This combined with a good mileage today to give us some very good data to work through ahead of Kimi getting in the car tomorrow.
1. Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m18.218s 95 laps2. Paul di Resta Force India 1m19.003s + 0.785s 953. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m19.134s + 0.916s 834. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m19.338s + 1.120s 1015. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1m19.502s + 1.284s 996. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m19.519s + 1.301s 157. Sergio Perez McLaren 1m19.572s + 1.354s 818. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m19.914s + 1.696s 789. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m20.693s + 2.475s 7110 James Rossiter Force India 1m21.273s + 3.055s 1911 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1m21.311s + 3.093s 8812 Luiz Razia Marussia 1m23.537s + 5.319s 31
